The prices of electric cars, despite their increasing popularity, have risen rather than fallen in the last decade. At least in the US and Europe, while in China, thanks to government incentives and the launch of low-cost models, the opposite has happened. To reveal it is an analysis conducted globally by the Jato study which however, it must be said, has taken medium-high range models into consideration (starting with Tesla), assuming that prices will also drop in the old continent as soon as smaller vehicles such as the electric Fiat 500 increase their market share, the 'Opel Corsa-e, the Peugeot 208-e or the electric Mini.
According to Jato, if in 2011 an electric car cost 100, today in the United States it costs 155 and in Europe 142, in absolute contrast to the forecasts of analysts a few years ago. Only China respected what should be the logical trend (more electric cars = lower prices) (prices more than halved, -58%), where, moreover, the irruption of non-polluting cars on the market was much more marked: if 100% electric cars sold in the world have passed from 35.000 in 2011 to 1,3 million in 2018 (and to 1,2 million in the first 10 months of 2019 alone), is largely thanks to Beijing, which recorded 800.000 deliveries last year and already almost 700.000 this year. While both in the EU and in the US, orders have not gone beyond 200.000 each.
The research then gives some concrete examples: in the USA the 107 horsepower Nissan Leaf SL cost 33.720 dollars in 2011 and 36.720 in 2017. Tesla's Model S has instead refined the price downwards, but not significantly: from 77.540 to 76.000 dollars between 2012 and 2019. It is above all the comparison with diesel-powered cars to worry about: while there is talk of an energy transition to be completed urgently by 2030, Jato notes that in the United States the average price of diesel or petrol vehicles is $35.970, while the equivalent electric models rise to $51.691 (+44%).
